Proton Mail facts for kids
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Screenshot of the Proton Mail website, showing the conversation view of a message in a user's inbox
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| Available in | |
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| Headquarters |
Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland
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| Owner | Proton AG |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 100 million (April 2023) |
| Launched | May 16, 2014 |
| Current status | Online |
| Written in | TypeScript and Go |
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| License | GNU GPLv3 |
Proton Mail is a secure email service from Switzerland. It started in 2014. What makes it special is its "end-to-end encryption." This means your emails are scrambled and protected from the moment you send them until they reach the person you sent them to. Only you and the recipient can read them.
Proton Mail is owned by the Proton Foundation. This group also runs other privacy-focused services. These include Proton VPN (for secure internet browsing), Proton Drive (for secure file storage), and Proton Calendar (for private scheduling).
Unlike other email providers like Gmail or Outlook.com, Proton Mail encrypts your emails and data before they even leave your device. This helps keep your information very private.
Proton Mail began with money raised from many people online. At first, you needed an invitation to join. But by 2016, it was open to everyone. By 2017, it had two million users. By 2022, nearly 70 million people were using it. Today, it has over 100 million users.
Contents
How Proton Mail Started
Proton Mail first became available to the public for testing on May 16, 2014. So many people wanted to try it that they had to temporarily stop new sign-ups. This allowed them to make their servers bigger. After that, new users had to join a waiting list.
In the summer of 2014, Proton Mail raised over $550,000 from more than 10,000 people. This was part of an online fundraising campaign. They had only aimed to raise $100,000, so they did very well! During this time, a company called PayPal temporarily held some of their donated money. PayPal later released the funds.
On August 14, 2015, Proton Mail launched a big update called version 2.0. This update completely rewrote the code for its website. On March 17, 2016, version 3.0 was released. This was the official launch of Proton Mail, meaning it was no longer just a test version. This update also brought new designs for the website. It launched the first test versions of Proton Mail apps for iPhones and Android phones. The waiting list for new users was also removed.
New Features Over Time
On January 19, 2017, Proton Mail launched a special version of its website. This version could be accessed through Tor, a network that helps people browse the internet more privately.
Later in 2017, Proton Mail added new tools. On November 21, they introduced Proton Mail Contacts. This is a contact manager that keeps your contact information encrypted. On December 6, they launched Proton Mail Bridge. This app lets you use Proton Mail's secure features with other email programs like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.
On July 25, 2018, Proton Mail added features to help verify email addresses. They also added support for Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). PGP is a way to encrypt emails so they can be read by other secure email programs.
In July 2021, security experts checked Proton Mail's systems. They found no major problems or security weaknesses. The results of this check were shared publicly.
In April 2022, Proton Mail bought a company called SimpleLogin. SimpleLogin helps users create "email aliases." These are fake email addresses that forward messages to your real one. This helps hide your main email address. SimpleLogin's features were added to Proton Mail. In the same month, Proton Mail also allowed users to create new email addresses ending in `@proton.me`. Before this, all addresses ended in `@protonmail.com`.
In May 2022, the company changed its name from ProtonMail to Proton Mail, adding a space. In February 2023, a much improved version of Proton Mail Bridge was released. This allows Proton Mail to be used with any third-party email program on Windows, macOS, or Linux, while still keeping emails encrypted.
In April 2024, Proton Mail launched a desktop app for Windows and macOS computers. A version for Linux is also being tested. This app is currently for users who pay for a subscription. It also lets users access their Proton Calendar.
In July 2024, Proton released a private AI writing assistant for Proton Mail called Scribe.
How Encryption Works
Proton Mail uses special methods to keep your emails private. When you create a Proton Mail account, your computer creates two special digital keys: a public key and a private key.
- The public key is like a digital lock. Anyone can use it to encrypt (scramble) an email for you.
- The private key is like the only key that can unlock those scrambled emails. This private key is also encrypted using your mailbox password.
This scrambling happens on your computer using a strong encryption method called AES-256. When you sign up, you create a password for your account.
Proton Mail also offers a two-password login option.
- The first password is for logging into your account.
- The second password is for unlocking your mailbox. This mailbox holds your emails, contacts, and your private encryption key.
When you log in, you need both passwords. This lets you access your account and unlock your encrypted mailbox. The unlocking happens on your device, not on Proton Mail's servers. Proton Mail only stores your public key and your encrypted private key. This means Proton Mail itself cannot read your emails or reset your mailbox password. They cannot be forced to show your past emails to anyone.
Proton Mail always uses secure connections (HTTPS and TLS) to protect all information sent between your device and their servers.
In September 2015, Proton Mail added built-in support for PGP. This allows you to share your public key with people outside Proton Mail. They can then use it to send you encrypted emails. Proton Mail also supports sending PGP-encrypted emails to people who don't use Proton Mail.
Sending Emails Securely
When you send an email from one Proton Mail account to another, it's automatically encrypted. Only the person receiving the email can unlock and read it.
If you send an email from Proton Mail to someone who doesn't use Proton Mail, you can choose to send it encrypted. If you do, the message is encrypted with a password you choose. The recipient gets a link to a Proton Mail website. They enter the password there to read the message. You and the recipient need to share this password in a separate, secure way. These encrypted emails can also be set to disappear after a certain time.
Where Proton Mail Stores Data
Proton Mail keeps its data in special secure buildings called data centers. These are located in Switzerland, Germany, and Norway. One of their Swiss data centers is in a former military bunker, deep under granite rock.
Each data center uses multiple servers to handle website traffic, emails, and databases. They have backup power supplies and use hard drives with full disk encryption. This means all the data on the drives is scrambled. They also use only Linux and other open-source software.
Legal Information
Proton Mail follows Swiss laws. If Swiss law is broken, they must follow court orders from Switzerland. Because of their strong encryption, Proton Mail cannot give anyone the content of your encrypted emails. However, if there is a Swiss criminal investigation, they might be legally required to record the IP addresses of users.
Proton Mail suggests that if you need to hide your identity from the Swiss government, you should use their Tor hidden service or Proton VPN. This is because Swiss law treats VPNs differently than email services. Proton VPN is not required to keep logs of user activity and cannot be forced to do so.
In 2020, Proton Mail received over 3,500 orders from Swiss authorities. They challenged about 750 of these orders. In October 2021, Proton Mail won a court case in Switzerland. This case confirmed that email services are not considered telecommunications providers. This means they don't have to keep user data logs like phone companies do.
In November 2019, the government of Belarus temporarily blocked Proton Mail and Proton VPN. The block was lifted a few days later without explanation.
In January 2020, Russia's internet regulator said it had completely blocked Proton Mail services in Russia. They claimed it was because Proton Mail refused to give information about accounts that allegedly sent spam with terror threats. However, Proton Mail said they never received any such requests from Russian authorities. Proton Mail suggested that users in Russia could use VPNs or Tor to get around the block.
In March 2020, Proton Mail announced new features to help users get around blocks. These features were added to both Proton Mail and Proton VPN apps.
In April 2025, a court in India asked the Indian government to block Proton Mail. This was due to a complaint from a company that said its employees received unwanted content in emails sent via Proton Mail.
See also
In Spanish: Proton Mail para niños
- Comparison of mail servers
- Comparison of webmail providers
